THE FINAL ANALYSIS

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe

The story “The Black Cat” under analysis is written by Edgar Allan Poe. The author is famous American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

The extract describes a man, who was an alcoholic addicted and he was married and had a pet. The pet was a black cat, his name was Pluto “This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree. In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise. Not that she was ever serious upon this point--and I mention the matter at all for no better reason than that it happens, just now, to be remembered.” The man killed his cat, but it was alive, after all events he tried to kill it for the second time, but he killed his wife and mured her in the wall. Suddenly, the police came and her body in the wall with the cat on her head.

The basic theme of the story is a study of the psychology of guilt. A murderer carefully conceals his crime and believes himself unassailable, but eventually breaks down and reveals himself, impelled by a nagging reminder of his guilt.

The events in the analyzed text happen in several places. Poe provides few details about his settings. There are several settings:

·      the  jail cell

This is a small space where the narrator is forced to examine    his    actions and his life.  He still refuses to take responsibility for his actions.

·     the narrator’s home

The first house becomes a prison cell for the wife and the pets. The reader discovers that the family has been rich and even had servants. When the house is destroyed by fire, after years of abuse, the pets finally escape their awful "home," and die tortured by the flames.

The bedroom wall that is left standing after the fire with its raised image of the cat foreshadows the second cat’s arrival in the man’s life.  It also represents the psychological hold that Pluto has on the narrator.

·     the yard of the burned house

This is the place where Pluto is hung.  This foreshadows the death of the narrator as he will be hung the next day after his story is completed.

·     the new house

The second house is old and depressing.  The family has lost their wealth in the fire.

·     the bar where the second cat is found

The bar is a dirty, dank place where the narrator notices the cat sitting atop a huge barrel of wine.

·     the cellar

The cellar is another important aspect of setting.

One day she [the wife] accompanied me, upon some household errand, into the cellar of the old building which our poverty compelled us to inhabit…

It becomes a horrific scene because the wife innocently tries to protect her pet but is brutally killed. Her tomb becomes the cellar wall where her body will decompose and eventually be mutilated by the second cat, who has to live there for four days

It is unclear how much time elapses during the story. The span of time is detected only by the narrator’s perverted thoughts and actions which determine the course of the story.

The setting of the events in the given story is fantastic. It is presented in a detailed way. It symbolizes the emotional state of the characters. The author uses descriptions in order to present it in a way of mystery and fear, uses symbolism “black cat”, metaphors, epithets, repetitions, which helps him to make the story untypical and unusual for readers.

From the point of view of presentation the text is the 1^st person narrative.

The characters we meet in the extract under analysis are the narrator, the narrator’s wife, a cat Pluto, the second cat and a policeman. The writer reveals characters by means of indirect characterization. The author shows them through the narrator’s description of the actions, thoughts and emotions:

·         the narrator

The narrator has major issues. This unnamed character is an abusive bully and a murderer. He made home a living hell for his wife, pets, and himself. “From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets. With these I spent most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them. This peculiar of character grew with my growth, and in my manhood, I derived from it one of my principal sources of pleasure. To those who have cherished an affection for a faithful and sagacious dog, I need hardly be at the trouble of explaining the nature or the intensity of the gratification thus derivable. There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.” He's writing to us from his prison cell, on the eve of his scheduled death by hanging. In addition to the details of his heinous crimes, he reveals his psychological transformation from nice-guy to villain. He tells us that around the time he murdered his wife, all "good" had been driven from his personality.
And he doesn't seem to be confessing out of a sense of guilt. Over the course of the story, the narrator provides several reasons for his various behaviors. But mostly he seems to be blaming the cat (or cats) for all his problems. According the narrator, it's the cat's fault that the domestic scene of the story ultimately turned so foul. This seems to be his real point in telling us the story.

·         the narrator's wife

The brief outline the narrator provides us of his wife suggests that she is kind, giving, loyal, and even heroic at the end. The narrator says she has "in a high degree, that humanity of feeling which had once been distinguishing characteristic." She is a highly sympathetic character, in her own right. The fact that the narrator abuses her, and her beloved pets, makes her even more sympathetic, and makes us think that the man is a complete bad character.

·         Pluto

Pluto is fine specimen of a cat. All black, large, fuzzy, and "and sagacious to an astonishing degree".  Over the years Pluto moves from a pampered pet to an abused beast. He is blinded and ultimately murdered by his owner. The narrator might have us believe that he is actually a witch in disguise, transforming from witch to Pluto, to the second black cat. Pluto is a cat, and only a cat or he is a symbol or allegory for other things or  he's both. Poe had pets of his own, and is suspected to have been an animal lover. At a most basic level, the story seems designed to invite sympathy for animals, and raise awareness of animal abuse.

·         the second cat

The second black cat looks almost exactly like Pluto. He's big, black, and missing an eye. The only difference is the white spot. The spot starts off innocently enough, but then grows into an image of the gallows, if the narrator can be believed. With all these similarities, and with the narrator's insistence that the cat is more than just a cat.

·         The police man

These policeman are generic characters, without defining characteristics, other than the fact that they are policeman. In this case, the policemen get us thinking about the theme of "Justice and Judgment" in the story. Here's one way to look at it. None of the narrator's behavior up to the point he murdered his wife was illegal during the time Poe was writing – even if we think of the cat as allegorically representing a slave or a child.

A man could beat his wife, slave, child, and animals and be completely within the law. It was legal to kill slaves and pets, so long as they belonged to the person doing the killing. The death of the man's wife was necessary before the narrator could be brought to justice under the law. In some ways the policemen represent the limits of legal justice. The police are limited in what they can do. Even if they were afraid the man would kill his wife, they can't do anything about it until he actually does the deed.

The plot of the story runs as follows:

·         Introduction - Death Row

The first thing we learn is that the nameless narrator is going to die the next day, and that he wants to write his story, which will be ugly. This story, the narrator says, is going to be about some things that happened to him at home. The "consequences" of what happened "have terrified – have tortured – have destroyed" him. We don't yet know why he's going to die the following day, or where exactly he is.

·         Exposition - A Drinking Problem

The narrator tells us that as a kid the he was a kind, sensitive animal lover. We also learn that he and his wife had had "birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat". The cat is Pluto. The conflict begins to unfold when the man describes the way his personality changed for the worse when he started drinking heavily, several years after Pluto became his pet. The conflict is within the narrator's home, between himself and his wife and pets, who he begins to abuse, physically and verbally, except for Pluto.

·         Development of events - Pluto is Murdered

When the narrator turns on Pluto, he doesn't do it halfway. First he cuts the cat's eye out, and then he hangs him from the tree in his garden, leaving the body there when he goes to sleep. This definitely complicates things for the narrator. He is now a cat murderer, and his once happy home seems to be more and more nightmarish, especially for the other characters.

·         Climax - Fire

Somehow, when the narrator goes to sleep that night (after murdering Pluto in the morning) his house catches on fire. Someone (it's never revealed who) wakes him from his sleep with a warning, just in time. The narrator, his wife, and "a servant" escape the flames. All the family's financial security goes up in smoke. Presumably, the birds, gold-fish, […] fine dog, rabbits, [and] small monkey perish in the flames, though the narrator never mentions them again. The climax propels this desperate family into poverty and into changing residences.

The Cat Comes Back

We can think of a completely different cat. In any case, the arrival of the second cat marks the halfway point in this story. It is suspenseful precisely because we aren't sure what the second cat is. If the narrator can be believed, the cat is not only missing an eye, like Pluto, but also grows an image of a gallows on his chest (a "gallows" is an apparatus used for hanging people). The cat also seriously gets on the narrator's nerves. We might see the cat as affectionate, and desperate for affection, but the narrator sees him as executing some awful plot against him. In the stage we see the narrator getting worse and worse. And we learn that the narrator is writing from a "felon's cell". Waiting to see what lands him in jail adds another layer of suspense to the story.

·         Denouement - The Perfect Crime

During that fateful trip to the cellar of the family's new residence (an "old building") the narrator tries to kill the cat with his axe. When his wife intervenes, the axe is turned on her. The narrator thinks he's successfully hidden the body and bluffed the cops. He isn't upset about killing his wife, and is happy he has managed to make the cat run away.

·         Conclusion - The Cat Come Back

In the conclusion, the cat reappears, and the murder is discovered. The man seems convinced that the cat exposed him on purpose. The description of the cat's "voice" coming from inside the wall suggests that if the cat did intentionally allow himself to be walled up, in order to expose the man, he paid an awful price for it.

The types of speech employed by the author of the analyzed extract are narration, monologue and description. The given story is rather a narration than a description.

In order to portray the characters vividly and convincingly the author of the analyzed story resorts to the following devices:

˗          Parallelism

This story contains various parallel structures. Typically at the beginning of the story which shows parallel features and repetition of key words.

“In their consequences, these events have terrified, - have tortured – have destroyed me.”

The phrases are parallel, which have an effect of clarifying the narrator’s actual condition. He is in a great tension by the consequences of his madness deed. The phrases put at the beginning of the story intentionally, in order to indicate the coming ghostly event. The negative words like, “terrified”, “tortured”, “destroyed” give emphasis for the message.

The purpose of these parallel features is to give emphasis to the narrator’s hard condition. There is also another parallel, written after he accidentally killed his wife, in the presence of the police men.

“I walked the cellar from end to end. I folded my arms upon my bosom, and roamed easily to and fro.”

The parallel sentences show the enormous anxiety of the murderer. They create image of the circumstances. The power of this parallel structure and lexical choice makes the narration interesting. The process of torturing the cat is presented by the use of repetitions and a parallel construction in order to emphasize the psychological state of the murderer and points out his concentration on what he is doing, his being caught in an endless loop of reflection on this terrible deed, here is the example:

“One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; - hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; - hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offence; - hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin…."

This clearly makes the thoughts of the character displayed and helps the reader get closer to his bizarre nature. By the means of parallelism, the write could make connections between ideas and claims of his character and also helped keep the reader on track.

˗          Repetition

The repetition is due to some specific reasons, which all support to describe the narrator's state of mind, his thoughts and views when telling the story. It is important to mention that these kinds of repetition sometimes create parallel structures too. Some of the examples are:

"I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others."        

"When reason returned with the morning -- when I had slept off the fumes of the night's debauch -- I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse,"

“These walls are you going, gentlemen? – these walls are solidly put together…”

“Some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the common-place – some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own.”

"I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity"

The purpose here is to emphasize on the condition of narrator's mind and how he wants to declare his destroyed mood and sometimes stressing on the speeches to attract reader's attention.

˗          Metaphor and Personification

The story under the analysis is rich in metaphors. Metaphors which are used to illustrate the changes of the inner world of the character and his behavior with others can be found in such cases as:

“Many projects entered my mind.”

“I had walled the monster up within the tomb!”

“…and I resigned myself thenceforward to despair.”

“the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder…”

“This peculiarity of character grew with my growth.”

“The fury of a demon instantly possessed me.”

“…and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed.”

“But at length reflection came to my aid.”

Personification is used as regards to the abstract inanimate objects and notions in order to present them as some kind of mystical powers that “grow upon” the narrator and that he is unable to control:

“evil thoughts became my sole intimates”,

“the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of man”,

“and then came…the spirit of PERVERSENESS”

“My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame”

There is no doubt, that by using variety of metaphors and personifications, the author points our attention to some important situations while the narrator describes the events happened to him.

˗          Paradox

In the first line of the first paragraph, there is an obvious paradox with a parallel structure, which takes the attention of the reader, as below:

“For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief.

The narrator introduces his story, which deviates from the normal story, in an antonyms parallel approach, that his story is peculiar. The paradoxical phrases, “most wild” and “most homely” create contradictory vision to the reader since they are nearly antonyms. The one who reads this first line becomes eager to know what wild and homely narration is. There is also another paradoxical expression which is an antonym parallel at the same time. In the middle of the story saying:

“...even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God.”

He referred to God as the most merciful and most terrible. This also reflects his madness, that how could be merciful and terrible at the same time. Yet, the paradox here holds a purpose, for to show in what kind of dilemma he has been to.

˗          Symbolism and Allusion

This story has a great deal of symbolism which plays an important role throughout the whole story. From the symbolism in the story we learn a lot about the hidden messages that are behind the narrators actions.

“The Black Cat” symbolizes death, darkness in traditional terms. As in one of the speeches of the wife of the narrator usually regarding that, “… all black cats are witches in disguise.” Yet black cats can symbolize a lot more things such things as death, sorcery, witchcraft, spirits of the dead, and most common a symbol of bad luck.  The cat s name itself can be interpreted as a symbol. Pluto, the name of the cat, can symbolize what we know from Greek and Roman mythology, which is that Pluto was the god of the dead and ruler of the underworld which is an Allusion also.  Another part in the story which can symbolize a lot of things is the fact that the cat is half blinded, this could exemplify that the narrator too is somehow half blinded maybe by drinking, or by guilt, or the disinclination to see disturbing things. The physical harm the narrator imposes upon the cat can symbolize how he instead wants to harm his wife.

Even though the narrator blinded and hanged the black cat. Another white-spotted black cat appears. This makes the story deviant, that it is connected with the spiritual world. Here, the symbol is clearly seen that the evil spirit is not flesh and blood that could be killed. He follows the human beings as the black cat follows the narrator.

Fire is another symbol in the story which represents the judgment for the committed crime, in the story. His house is burned after the killing of the black cat.

“The plastering had here, in great measure, resisted the action of the fire -”

The story is enriched by these symbols which gained the author a good reputation in terms of style variation.

˗          Irony

There are various ironies in this story. The typical one is when the narrator worries that after he relates his story, others will not give it much thought and will not probably consider it as an ordinary event. Nonetheless, the narrator is telling the story from his prison cell awaiting his death, and his tale is a criminal one out of his wrath. Undoubtedly, this seems very far from ordinary. He describes his events as normal and that he had committed no mistakes or faults which in fact he is a dangerous murderer. This example clarifies how he narrates in an ironical way:

"Yet, mad am I not—and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburden my soul. My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events."

As we see, we get the first impression as if we are listening to a very rational and intelligent man who is about to explain a series of bizarre events, consequently, we identifies how ironically he impressed his feeling when we find out he is really a mad person.

Irony also can be found when the narrator cuts out Pluto's eye, the cat sees well "…but he no longer appeared to suffer any pain. He went about the house as usual...". Previously, the cat loved and trusted the narrator, following him everywhere, and they were fond of each other. But after the cat misses an eye, it sees the narrator for what he is, an imprudent, dangerous man.

˗          Simile

This is a prevail figure of speech and its use is inevitable in the sequences of the story. The narrator attempts to liken and associate between things. The famous conventional belief about the evil spirits of the cats is confirmed by such a simile:

"all black cats as witches in disguise."

"the spirit of PERVERSENESS as if my final and irrevocable overthrow."

The case of simile is also used in the final part of the story to intensify the tension of the events:

"a cry…like the sobbing of a child."

There other multitude uses of simile which has been used by the author to attach between images and meanings of phrases and expressions.

One literary device that is immediately evident is alliteration, the repetition of initial consonant sounds. In this case, the alliterative words are "sooner," "sunk," and "silence"; both words begin with the letter "s," creating a specific form of alliteration called sibilance (repetition of the "s" sound). Sibilance is evident also within the words "answered" and "voice."

Another device that appears is assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds. The long “u” sound in “sooner” repeats in “tomb.” The long “o” sound in “blows” repeats in “voice.”

Obviously, all these elements made the story deviated semantically and contributed prominently to the effect of shocking events in Poe’s work “The Black Cat”. Poe’s skillful use of all of these elements needs further deep stylistic analysis under other methods.

Summing up the analysis of the given extract one should say that the writer Edgar Poe brilliantly uses parallelism, symbolism and repetition, which help to reveal the main character’s nature and bring home to the reader the main idea of the text. The general atmosphere of mysticism, dark romanticism and extreme terror is brilliantly presented in the story and well emphasized by the appropriately applied stylistic devices that enable the readers to feel and live through all the events described by the author.

The author writes his stories like his own experience and it makes his stories amazing and makes readers to think off it. “The Black Cat” is a great example of the mystic story, this story symbolizes the author’s attitude to the death and life. And it helps me to do the same.